Stress factors

In Los Angeles County, where the unemployment rate hovers around 12 percent, anxiety is very real among the nearly 700,000 students enrolled at Los Angeles Unified School District, said Pia Escudero, director for school mental health services at LAUSD.

"We know that in Los Angeles County the economic situation is affecting several of our families," she said. "We have poverty, community violence, child abuse, domestic violence, and we know now that more families are struggling to put food on the tables."

While teachers and administrators are better equipped to identify anxiety and depression, dwindling state dollars takes away from services that could do more. (Daily Breeze)